The Dark Knight Rises.

For a long time now people have been asking me to write movie reviews just for the sheer amount of movies that I see, but then again quantity has never beaten quality and I have never been "inspired" enough to write a review for any movie (ok, maybe a few, but then, we are all lazy right?). But what better movie to spark it off than Christopher Nolan's masterpiece "The Dark Knight Rises". The build up to the movie if nothing else has been legendary with bat signals flaring up in various cities all over the world and me, being a Batman fanboy, couldn't have asked for a better ending to the franchise than the one Nolan has conjured up. Quite often Nolan has been blamed for making the movies too grim or too "real" and people even started saying ridiculous things out of their depth of understanding after the Avengers movie came out about the man. But then, in Nolan we trust! And he is yet to disappoint.

Comparisons were made between DC and Marvel comics who were approaching their movies in different ways, one sticking to the comics and making them out to be larger than life superheroes with larger than life but ultimately shallow problems while DC decided to make them more realistic, a sense of belonging to the common man and that superheroes too are ultimately human.

The Dark Knight Rises(TDKR) continues where The Dark Knight left off or rather eight years later, after Batman having taken the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes and going into self imposed exile. The streets of Gotham never having been more crime free, which as one of the characters puts it "we will be soon sending cops to chase down overdue library books", thanks to the Harvey Dent act. We are introduced to the menacing and very creepy terrorist Bane, brilliantly portrayed by Tom Hardy who looks like Hulk without the green make up and stupidity, so good is he that we are made to wonder if this was the same character envisioned by Joel Schumacher in the 1997 disaster. Although far from the superhuman performance given by his predecessor as Joker by Heath Ledger, he still does his part, even though he meets with a rather disappointing end. Anne Hathway, another apt addition to the muti glitter cast also portrays the latex clad cornered cat burglar convincingly, though my vote for the best portrayal of Catwoman still stays with the old fox Michele Pfeiffer. Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard play their parts adequately. Joseph Gordon-Levitt being given a big role as honest city beat cop John Blake, a central character, gets his due in the end *Oooh spoilers*

Nolan manages to stitch the movie which begins with the dramatic entrance of Bane from a high-voltage packed action flick to disaster movie with adequate amounts of drama and romance thrown in. The film is solidly anchored by the deep trust, love and loyalty between Bale's Bruce Wayne and his faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth, brilliantly played by Michael Caine who deserves an Oscar nomination for his role in the movie. The movie progresses a tad slowly taking its time to build the characters and its multiple sub-plots, hence the nearly 3 hours, making us wonder whether the editor should have tied the movie a little more taut. The music by Hans Zimmer sometimes interfering with the dialogues, drowning it, manages to be largely exemplary. The dialogues though far from the standard set by The Dark Knight is still witty and full of meaningful exchanges. The cinematography was simply awe-inspiring, showing Gotham in all its glory thanks to the scenes shot in IMAX, from its skyscrapers to the snow carpeted city to the underground scenes, the very first action sequence in itself being worth every penny paid for the movie, it is a rich canvas perfectly chosen and choreographed to script the ending of this glorious series.

Christian Bale, the quintessential performer, overshadowed in the previous installment by the sheer brilliance that was Heath Ledger grabs his chance in this one to a point where you hear yourself chanting "deshi-deshi, basara-basara" , he gives an exceptional performance which truly deserves another Oscar nomination to this actor who makes us wonder how he manages to shrink and expand his body with such ease while never going short on his emotions.

And finally, Christopher Nolan, who has also written the screenplay along with his brother and the original script writer of the first movie Goyer, has managed to exceed the sky high expectations surrounding the film with the way he stitches all three movies together while managing to keep surprises in store at every turn. Brilliantly done as it is, it still is not without its slip-ups and does not manage to match the impossible standards set by The Dark Knight, a bane in itself, but the movie still manages to be a truly fitting send off to the franchise and the movie in itself is exceptional and probably the best movie of 2012, the sheer brilliance of it showing in each frame and ends up as a true fanboy's delight. This Batman series has now truly showed the way and set the bar impossibly high for all future superhero movies. Will they rise up to it? I doubt it.

Credits -

Directed by : Christopher Nolan

Writing credits:

Screenplay: Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan

Story: David S. Goyer & Christopher Nolan